Acknowledgments
There were many people instrumental in the formation of this resource.First and foremost, we are indebted to group participants and family members who shared their time and expertise with us during this process. Their insight and involvement was invaluable in helping develop this manual.A special thank you to Dilbagh Mann for her dedication in facilitating the women’s group and providing generously her time and support to participants and family members. We would also like to thank Dr. Terry Isomura, Medical Director, Mental Health and Addiction Services Fraser Health, for her encouragement in developing this resource.
1. Foreword
This manual is the result of many years work. Not just in the creation of the program itself but also in accepting that the need for something like this exists. It has not been such a long time since the subject of depression in women was not even acknowledged let alone spoken of openly, and certainly depression in women, which is identified as occurring twice as often in women as in men, has only very recently begun to be treated with the respect and urgency it deserves as one of the primary diseases in our population. Our organization has worked for nearly thirty years to eliminate the impact and remove the stigma of depression and of all mental illness. We have done this by providing information, education and peer support. Our aim is to shine the light of education onto this disease and in doing so help those who are ill control its’ effects on them and their families, recover and in turn regain control of their lives. We also recognized the need for language specific information so that goal can be realized for all. This manual is the result of research and practices that have been thoughtfully designed to achieve that end.We could not have produced such a resource without the specific knowledge and effort of Dr. Rajpal Singh, psychologist, the author of this resource. Dr. Singh is integral to the success we have had in working toward our goal to deliver our product within the south-Asian community and without his help we would not have achieved this much success. We are deeply indebted to him. As with any endeavour of this kind people do not work alone. We also wish to thank Sophia Johl who gave so much of her time to assist in researching the volumes of data to ensure a quality manual.Finally we wish to pay tribute to Dr. Sarvjeet Bains, psychiatrist, who took so much care to validate every item in the manual. We could not have produced something like this without the efforts of a professional of her caliber.We at Mood Disorders Association of BC are very proud of this work and we wish every woman who uses it the utmost success in dealing with their disease.